Trump inspires hope, energy, anxiety in California GOP

Donald Trump campaigns in Louisville, Ky., a day after winning 7 primary contests, moving him closer to the GOP nomination.

Photo: John Bazemore, Associated Press

When Doug Ose, a former Republican congressman, announced last month that he was backing in-your-face New York developer and former TV reality show star Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, he was bombarded with incredulous calls and emails, all asking “Why?”

“A lot of people in my political circles were somewhat confused about my endorsement,” said Ose, a Sacramento-area developer who lost a bid to return to Congress in 2014. “But I’m unapologetic. I was with Gov. (Jeb) Bush, but he’s not running now.”

Republicans across California are facing similar decisions as Trump draws ever closer to the nomination. Super Tuesday victories in seven states, ranging from Vermont and Massachusetts to Georgia and Alabama, give the controversial political novice an increasingly clear path to a fall campaign against the Democrats’ choice for president.

“The party is divided,” said Tom Del Beccaro, a former GOP state chairman who is running for U.S. Senate. “The intensity of dislike between the various candidates is higher than it’s ever been.”

Ron Nehring, a two-term state party chairman, is running Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s California campaign and was recently named the senator’s national spokesman. Not surprisingly, he believes Trump’s nomination would be a disaster for both the state and the nation.

“If Trump is the nominee, we’ll be giving the country a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate and a liberal Supreme Court that could stand for decades,” he said. “The nominating process is not just to produce a candidate, but also to make sure those candidates are vetted,” and Trump hasn’t passed that test.

Election 2016

Trump’s calls for a wall along the Mexican border, a ban on Muslim immigrants, oppressive tariffs on Chinese imports and other hard-line stances have played much better with angry voters than with Republican Party leaders. But Trump, a billionaire who is self-financing much of his campaign, makes no apologies for saying what he thinks, without the usual filters that political pros and officeholders of both parties always apply.

Disdain for leaders

Trump also has little use for the GOP leaders and donors who for years have guided the presidential nomination process with their endorsements and contributions.

On Tuesday, for example, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized, without mentioning any names, what they suggested was Trump’s apparent unwillingness to quickly denounce former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support for his campaign.

Asked about the criticism at his Tuesday night news conference, Trump said he wants nothing to do with Duke, but suggested he doesn’t have much more willingness to deal with Ryan.

“I’m going to get along great with Congress, OK?” Trump said. “Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well, but I’m sure I’m going to get along great with him. And if I don’t? He’s gonna have to pay a big price, OK?”

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are lying low, saying the party does not yet have a nominee and that only 30 percent of the delegates have been awarded. Few are ruling out the possibility of a convention floor fight to keep Trump from grabbing the nomination.

“People are done with the expectations game in this election,” said one Republican aide who was not authorized to speak for attribution.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield had no comment on the Super Tuesday results. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, asked in a brief hallway interview what she thought of the prospect of a Trump presidency, said it would be “a nightmare.”

Del Beccaro, who hasn’t endorsed anyone in the presidential race, said the issues, not the candidate, make the difference to him.

“I got into the race (for Senate) because of my strong support for a flat tax and solutions for the state’s water problems,” he said. “If Trump continues to come out for tax reform, I’ll support him in that.”

But he’s worried about the nastiness of the primary contest, which is increasingly pitting Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich against Trump in a desperate effort to keep him from winning the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this July.

“We need a candidate with national goals that engage everyone,” Del Beccaro said. “I’m still looking for the guy to bring America together.”

Impact of primary

That GOP battle could be good news for California, though, since it could make the state’s June GOP primary relevant for the first time in years.

“It’s very exciting for us to be in a position to make a difference,” said Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco trial lawyer who is vice chairwoman of the state Republican Party. “I’m hearing from county chairs that people who have left the party are reregistering so they can vote in the June primary for Trump.”

While Cruz has been organizing in California for months, and Rubio has begun hiring staff, Trump’s local effort has been invisible.

Invisible ground game

“I couldn’t tell you to save my life who the leader of the Trump campaign in California is ... but he still could win,” Dhillon said.

In the Golden State, as elsewhere in the nation, Trump has pulled together Republicans and independents who are white-hot angry about what’s been happening in Washington, said Tim Clark, a GOP strategist in California.

“I’ve had people say to me, ‘I don’t have to like Trump to vote for him, I just have to know he’ll do the job,’” he said. “They see Trump as the only candidate who couldn’t care less what anyone in Washington thinks, and is willing to go back there and kick over a few chairs.

“He paints in bold, stark colors, and that’s what our candidates have forgotten how to do,” Clark said.

The efforts to block Trump, both by party leaders and by the other candidates, only make his supporters madder and more convinced to back him.

“The part that bothers me most is that Trump’s opponents are basically saying that if you’re backing him, you don’t know anything,” said Ose. “Their attitude is if you’re voting for Trump, you must be stupid. Well, we’ll see you at the ballot box.”